


astroboy

by redlight



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cute, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Gen, Happy Birthday Lance, Lance is Cute, M/M, Space Metaphors, and he gets a bunch of cute interactions with everyone, could be taken romantically or platonically, lowkey polydins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 08:46:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11643030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redlight/pseuds/redlight
Summary: “We’re all going to die one day,” Hunk grumbles. “Sooner than later! And y’know whose fault it's gonna be?”“Mine!” Lance chirps, all blue glitter glue eyes and too-pretty, too-convincing smiles. “So, you in?”It's Lance, and Hunk, and Pidge, and Keith, and Shiro, and they're alladorable.





	astroboy

**Author's Note:**

> this is so last minute but i just really wanted to write something for my dumb beautiful blue boy. oh MAN it's like less than 10 minutes to midnight buT IT'S STILL HIS BIRTHDAY SO I'M OK.
> 
> lololol not yet edited so please let me know about any typos or awkward phrasing or anything

**1\. astronautics**

“I’m not backseat panicking,” Hunk tries, even though he's pinning himself up against the cool castle wall. Lance rolls his eyes, sighing theatrically, his slim-fingered hands resting on his skinny hips as he taps his feet on the ground.

“You _are_ , Hunk,” says Lance, looking up and down at Hunk’s tensed form. “Hey. Hey, listen to me, okay? All we have to do is get the door open – ”

“How would I know how to open the door?” Hunk mutters. “I'm still learning the details of Altean tech, and I _definitely_ don't know how to pick a lock – ”

Lance pouts, practically bouncing closer to Hunk, his hood and the fabric of his jacket flaring out behind him. “C’mon, Hunk, you're the astronautics and engineering guy – you can figure it out.” And then he grins his bright, shiny, Hollywood grin. “Also, I _really_ want to see those frozen Altean zoological specimens Coran was talking about.”

“What if they _unfreeze_ , Lance?” Hunk protests. “What if they're not contained properly? What if this turns into Jurassic Park, or that one Rick and Morty episode?”

Lance blinks. Then his eyes _glimmer_ , like that all-too-sticky blue glitter glue Lance once smeared in Hunk’s hair when they were in grade school and Lance convinced him to work on a science project together. “That would be,” Lance says, hushed. “The _coolest_ thing.”

“We’re all going to die one day,” Hunk grumbles. “Sooner than later! And y’know whose fault it's gonna be?”

“Mine!” Lance chirps, all blue glitter glue eyes and too-pretty, too-convincing smiles. “So, you in?”

Hunk sighs and he stops clinging to the wall, only for Lance to start clutching at his arm instead. “I guess I am the astronautics guy.”

Lance giggles, almost a little hysterical. “ _Oh my god_ , I’m a _really_ bad influence on you,” and with his fingers entwined with Hunk’s, he drags them both towards the door that they really, _really_ shouldn't be heading towards –

(But Lance’s hands are warm and his laughter is warmer, and Hunk bites his lips ‘til they're chapped to keep from giggling along with Lance.)

 **2.** **cosmic** **dust**

Pidge has been working on this shit for _way_ too long.

“Okay, _Lance_ ,” she hisses out, and, uh, maybe her voice is a little bit growly – as growly as she could get, anyway, so not really a _literal_ growl and probably not even a figurative growl like Shiro or Keith’s voices when _they’re_ angry – but, whatever. Point is, she’s a little frustrated, and it’s seeping through into her voice. Just a little.

“Yeah, yeah, I gotta hold still,” Lance murmurs, a little deadpan. “Y’know Shiro and Hunk and Coran are all taller than me, right?” He gestures to the antenna-like wire that’s crawling up his arm, dark against his jacket fabric as it spirals loosely around his neck and finishes off sticking up right above his distressed brown mess of hair.

“I don’t need height for this,” Pidge says. “Also, I didn’t wanna bother Shiro, or Hunk. And Coran goes off on…tangents, a lot, and that's really not conductive to my work.”

“And what _is_ your work, exactly?” Lance huffs.

Pidge tweaks a wire on his arm.

“Picking up local planetary system radio waves,” Pidge says proudly. “Maybe we can get some channels. Alien news, alien music, alien _radio dramas_ – all that stuff, yeah. ‘Cause, like, there _has_ to be other planets out there that’ve developed good old fashioned radio – and those waves _have_ to be floating around all this space debris and cosmic dust.”

Lance’s face brightens up with a beam, a cute, happy turn to his lips – _not that she'd ever say it out loud ‘cause holy shit she's not letting Lance hold that over her head_ – before it settles back into confusion. “And…why’re there wires on me?”

Pidge chuckles under her breath. “Oh. Just wanted to mess with you, a little bit.” Her mouth splits into a little toothy grin.

Lance _whines_ , “ _Pidge_!”

“Yeah, sorry, I just wanted to see if we could find some music ‘cause I _know_ you’d wanna dance but _whoops_ , a little too tied up – ”

“You're a _menace_ ,” Lance grumbles, already starting to pull at the wires and circuitry strapped to him.

Pidge smirks. “You like it, though.”

“Just help me get this off!”

**3\. supernova**

“You actually look like you're about to explode,” Lance whispers dramatically, and Keith bites down on his lips to keep from _roaring_.

“Okay, _Lance_ , if you're not gonna shut your mouth and let me _think_ on how to get us out of here – ” Keith’s _panicking_ , okay, ‘cause the door isn't budging and Keith only has one hand really free anyway, ‘cause Lance is _hurt_ and can't walk on that injured leg of his. So he's stretched across Keith’s back in a piggyback ride, arms slung lazily around Keith’s neck and thighs pressing warmly against Keith’s hips through the heavy fabric of their paladin suits, as Keith desperately tries to open a door.

“Did you try pulling the door instead of pushing it?” Lance deadpans.

Keith stops.

“Oh my god,” says Lance, ducking his head so that his breath was _barely_ brushing against Keith’s ear and –

It's not Keith’s fault, it's just that Lance is…distracting. Especially when he's bleeding out from a wound on his calf, and also huffing and puffing on Keith’s fragile bare ear skin. Shit.

The door opens when Keith hooks his fingers through a small groove and pulls – there was no outward handle, okay, give him a break.

“Oh,” says Keith. “Thanks, Lance.”

“Don't mention it,” Lance slurs, slumping heavily into Keith’s back, almost enough to make Keith stumble.

“Hey, hey, just stay with me, okay?” Keith tries, ‘cause he's _really_ not sure if he’ll be able to get out of this abandoned Galra ship without Lance calming down the rising panic in his veins, and if Lance _passes out_ then Keith might actually have a heart attack with how strung-up he is.

“You're just a – ” Lance hums. “An explosive, fiery little supernova boy.”

Keith wrinkles his nose. “...Alright, whatever, just keep talking.”

“Your gross goblin hair is going to suffocate me,” Lance complains.

“ _Nevermind_ , maybe I don't want you talking.”

Lance giggles blearily. “Are – are you sure ‘bout that, exploding mullet-man?”

“No, I’m not, just _stay_ _awake_ , Lance,” Keith breathes, heart stuttering as Lance snuggles into his back and whines softly.

“Oh, I'm trying.” Lance huffs into Keith’s ear. “Hurry the hell up, man.”

So Keith does, in fact, hurry the hell up, as fast as he fucking _can_.

**4\. stellar remnants**

Shiro ends up getting all the space cereal to fall over him.

See, even he has to reach up on his tiptoes to get the good cereal from the highest cupboards – well, it’s _kind of_ like cereal, it’s certainly some sort of grain from a foreign planet, and Allura _really_ likes it, considering how much she’d picked up. They have stacks upon _stacks_ of containment units filled with the cereal – small multicolor square shapes, kind of chewy, a bit sweet and salty like pretzels dipped in vanilla icing, which Shiro has to admit he was fond of as a kid.

So, it was in the middle of the sleep rotation, when everyone else was asleep, and yes, Shiro was sneaking food, if only to quell some of the adrenaline in his bloodstream after waking up from another night terror.

He’s – doing better, though. The terrors are becoming further apart, fewer in number. This is the first one Shiro’s had in over a week, almost two weeks.

Anyway, he’s reaching up to grab one of the small cereal boxes, before a tiny cough from somewhere behind him startles Shiro so much that he fumbles with the containment box, and he drops it. Alien cereal pieces end up tumbling around and over him like a shower of candy rain. Cereal candy. Space alien cereal candy. Oh, dear, this is getting a bit convoluted.

“Sorry!” a voice squeaks out from behind him. Raspy and nervous, and Shiro immediately turns his head to look.

It’s Lance, of course, ‘cause it was Lance’s voice. He’s in an oversized shirt, with cute blue star-patterned pyjamas – from one of their trips to a space mall or trade market, probably. And _Lance_ is cute – rubbing at his sleep-ridden eyes as his tired eyelashes flutter, adorable despite the dark sleepless circles, enticing maybe _because_ of them – shows that Lance is sleepless too, like Shiro is, and is in the kitchen to irresponsibly sneak snacks, just like Shiro is.

“Hi, Lance,” breathes Shiro, as he starts to duck down to pick up bits of the cereal – but Lance is following him down, crawling forward on his knees, scooping up tiny sweet squares in his own palms.

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you – ” Lance flusters, peeking up through his messy hair and smiling sheepishly, even through the pretty pink blush rising up on his cheeks. “I just – you know – black hole of a stomach, sometimes, haha.”

Shiro smiles warmly, helping him to pick up the cereal and put it back in its box. “Yeah, me too.”

Lance blinks up. He giggles quietly, a bit of a snort getting caught in his throat – makes Shiro grin, ‘cause that’s _cute_ , that’s such a cute sound, high and nasal and somewhat unattractive but _so_ endearing. Then Lance coughs awkwardly, looking back at the color-sprinkled floor.

“I think the black hole in my stomach could be classified as a stellar remnant all on its own,” Shiro says unthinkingly, if only to get Lance to snort again.

It works, and it’s so,  _so_ worth it.

( **5\. star clusters**

Sometimes, sometimes Lance feels a loneliness in his bones and an unworthiness trapped in the vessels of his blood, cold and big and suffocating, but sometimes –

Sometimes, there's something warm in Hunk’s cautious smile and Pidge’s mischievous grin and Keith’s bristling worry and Shiro’s unguarded jokes, and Lance’s heart feels so _full_ that it could just expand so much and so fast, like a mess of nuclear fission in a rapidly-growing red giant, and he feels –

He feels like he _belongs_ , a star that's gravitationally bound and entwined and totally connected to a family, and sometimes Lance can’t help but _adore_ his team for it.)

 

_end._

 

**Author's Note:**

> [hit me up on tumblr!!](https://redlights-in-space.tumblr.com/)  
>  or!!! plz talk to me on twitter [@redspacelights](https://twitter.com/REDSPACELIGHTS) bc i really want friends


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